Our English Curriculum
Our Writing Curriculum
Statement of Intent
Our aim is to empower our children through the inspiring teaching of writing. Pupils will be able to use writing to drive their curiosity forward. They will leave our school as passionate, confident writers who can communicate their ideas effectively. We will build a foundation of fluency in writing through high-quality teaching that places a focus upon stamina and independence. A passion for writing will be developed alongside fluency. Children will have a clear, real life purpose for writing and will feel driven to communicate their ideas. The work of other authors will be enjoyed and analysed as a further tool to drive passion.
Statement of Implementation
Writing is at the heart of our school. Opportunities to develop writing have been embedded throughout our curriculum.
Pupils develop high-quality speaking and listening skills which underpin their development as writers. In EYFS and Key Stage One, children develop their oral story telling skills through the retelling and mapping of high-quality texts. Across the school and wider curriculum, we provide regular opportunities for rich discussion.
A focus is placed upon enabling children to build a wide vocabulary. Texts are analysed and pupils take part in interactive games with a focus on vocabulary. Exciting and relevant vocabulary is displayed within classrooms.
A ‘reading into writing’ approach is taken throughout school. Pupils regularly read the work of other authors and identify key features. This is a driver for greater depth writing.
Opportunities for writing are provided throughout the curriculum to enable pupils to embed their writing skills. Extended written pieces are evidenced across a range of subjects. Children write in a range of genres across different subjects.
‘Letter Join’ is used in Key Stage One and Two as an approach for handwriting. Children in EYFS follow the approach from Little Wandle.
Statement of Impact
Pupils will become confident, fluent writers who can apply their writing skills in the wider world. They can write effectively in a range of genres, taking account of their audience and purpose. Our children use writing to underpin learning in other areas of the curriculum. Pupils have a passion for writing and feel excited to write for a range of purposes. They are familiar with the writing of a range of authors and can talk confidently about this, identifying a range of features.
Our Reading Curriculum
Statement of Intent
Our aim in reading is to provide an exciting and inspiring reading curriculum which develops a passion for a life-long love of reading. We want our children to be confident and fluent readers who continually build their vocabulary and knowledge about the wider world through the books that they read. Through access to high quality texts, our children become familiar with a wider range of authors, analysing their style and intent to support their development in writing.
Our inspiring learning environment puts reading at the heart, with displays, book areas and the wider environment sharing books and texts around the school.
Statement of Implementation
Reading is at the heart of our curriculum at St Josephs, we provide opportunities throughout our curriculum for children to read widely, practicing and embedding their skills from reading lessons.
Our reading curriculum is built around inspiring authors and high quality texts, which are carefully selected to meet the unique needs of our school community.
We develop pupil’s love of reading through:
Half termly ‘reading for pleasure’ books and novels which teachers read aloud and share with their pupils.
Weekly visits to our inspiring library area.
Enhancement activities such as world book day, national poetry day, story-telling week and themed days.
We teach reading skills through ‘whole class reading’ where children have the opportunities to explore stories, poetry and non-fiction texts. We look at vocabulary, key features and develop a wide range of comprehension skills through these lessons. Pupils develop fluency through strategies such as partner reading and inference skills through the comprehension work.
Our EYFS and Key Stage One pupils apply their phonic skills through Little Wandle reading practice sessions, these develop decoding, prosody and comprehension using carefully selected phonic books.
Our KS2 pupils have access to Reading Plus, which is a personalised , evidence based program which improves pupils access to a range of engaging texts, building up their fluency, stamina, motivation, vocabulary and comprehension skills.
Statement of Impact
As a result of the high quality reading provision at St Joseph’s, our children become confident, fluent and independent readers who have a love of reading and books.
They can apply their reading skills to the wider curriculum and learning of wider community and environmental issues to develop into global citizens.
By the end of Key Stage 2 our children will have been exposed to a wide variety of authors and text types, building their knowledge and confidence over time.
Through appropriate summative and formative assessment, teachers will see a steady improvement in children’s reading skills, in addition to providing teachers with the tools to design, plan and implement the next steps for progression.